Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Dec. 12 a bent water rod caused two fuel rods to come into contact inside a fuel rod assembly stored in a spent fuel storage pool for the No. 5 reactor of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture.

No damage to nuclear fuel or other anomalies have been reported, but the two fuel rods may have been in contact with each other when they were burning inside the reactor.

The situation had the potential to cause a serious fuel failure accident. [...]

Water rods [a passage for coolant water that runs through the center of a fuel assembly] were found to be bending in 18 fuel rod assemblies in the storage pool. Closer studies found that in one fuel rod assembly, the bending water rod pushed one nearby fuel rod into contact with another. [...] [link to enenews.com]

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Dec. 12 a bent water rod caused two fuel rods to come into contact inside a fuel rod assembly stored in a spent fuel storage pool for the No. 5 reactor of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture.

No damage to nuclear fuel or other anomalies have been reported, but the two fuel rods may have been in contact with each other when they were burning inside the reactor.

The situation had the potential to cause a serious fuel failure accident. [...]

Water rods [a passage for coolant water that runs through the center of a fuel assembly] were found to be bending in 18 fuel rod assemblies in the storage pool. Closer studies found that in one fuel rod assembly, the bending water rod pushed one nearby fuel rod into contact with another. [...] [link to enenews.com]

Quoting: Luisport

The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant (&#26575;&#23822;&#21000;&#32701;&#21407;&#23376;&#21147;&#30​330;&#38651;&#25152; Kashiwazaki-Kariwa genshiryoku-hatsudensho?, Kashiwazaki-Kariwa NPP) is a large, modern (housing the world's first ABWR) nuclear power plant on a 4.2-square-kilometer (1,038 acres) site[1] including land in the towns of Kashiwazaki and Kariwa in Niigata Prefecture, Japan on the coast of the Sea of Japan, from where it gets cooling water. The plant is owned and operated by The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO).

It is the largest nuclear generating station in the world by net electrical power rating.

2007 : It was approximately 15 miles from the epicenter of the second strongest earthquake to ever occur at a nuclear plant, the Mw 6.6 July 2007 Ch&#363;etsu offshore earthquake. This shook the plant beyond design basis and initiated an extended shutdown for inspection, which indicated that greater earthquake-proofing was needed before operation could be resumed. The plant was completely shut down for 21 months following the earthquake.

2009: Unit 7 was restarted after seismic upgrades on May 9, 2009, followed later by units 1, 5, and 6. (Units 2, 3, 4 were not restarted).

However all units have since been stopped for regular inspection.[citation needed]

After the April 2011 earthquake safety improvements are being carried out 2011-2013 but no units are expected to restart until mid 2013.[ [link to en.wikipedia.org]

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Dec. 12 a bent water rod caused two fuel rods to come into contact inside a fuel rod assembly stored in a spent fuel storage pool for the No. 5 reactor of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture.

No damage to nuclear fuel or other anomalies have been reported, but the two fuel rods may have been in contact with each other when they were burning inside the reactor.

The situation had the potential to cause a serious fuel failure accident. [...]

Water rods [a passage for coolant water that runs through the center of a fuel assembly] were found to be bending in 18 fuel rod assemblies in the storage pool. Closer studies found that in one fuel rod assembly, the bending water rod pushed one nearby fuel rod into contact with another. [...] [link to enenews.com]

Quoting: Luisport

The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant (&#26575;&#23822;&#21000;&#32701;&#21407;&#23376;&#21147;&#30​330;&#38651;&#25152; Kashiwazaki-Kariwa genshiryoku-hatsudensho?, Kashiwazaki-Kariwa NPP) is a large, modern (housing the world's first ABWR) nuclear power plant on a 4.2-square-kilometer (1,038 acres) site[1] including land in the towns of Kashiwazaki and Kariwa in Niigata Prefecture, Japan on the coast of the Sea of Japan, from where it gets cooling water. The plant is owned and operated by The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO).

It is the largest nuclear generating station in the world by net electrical power rating.

2007 : It was approximately 15 miles from the epicenter of the second strongest earthquake to ever occur at a nuclear plant, the Mw 6.6 July 2007 Ch&#363;etsu offshore earthquake. This shook the plant beyond design basis and initiated an extended shutdown for inspection, which indicated that greater earthquake-proofing was needed before operation could be resumed. The plant was completely shut down for 21 months following the earthquake.

2009: Unit 7 was restarted after seismic upgrades on May 9, 2009, followed later by units 1, 5, and 6. (Units 2, 3, 4 were not restarted).

However all units have since been stopped for regular inspection.[citation needed]

After the April 2011 earthquake safety improvements are being carried out 2011-2013 but no units are expected to restart until mid 2013.[ [link to en.wikipedia.org]

Quoting: Luisport

Here is another source, And if this is aloud here is a link to twitter

December 19, 2012 – JAPAN - Our earthquakes near volcanoes page showed that a shallow magnitude 3.7 quake occurred yesterday very near Adatara volcano near Fukushima City in Japan. Adatara is part of a group of overlapping active stratovolcanoes and was last active in 1990. The volcano is located about 15 kilometers southwest of Fukushima city and east of Mount Bandai. Its last known eruption was in 1996. –Volcano Discovery [link to theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com]